Saturday, November 15, 2008

In spite of what magazines have said about rising bands and their sartorial identities and image building wardrobe, I pick The Cardigans, but not in general; only in their Erase Rewind video. (Googling them, I found some horrible things.)

I think I watched this way back when I cared less for fashion. It stuck in my mind for three reasons: they all died in the end, they all looked good, and the song was great.

Maybe I'd change my mind if only I listened more to the punk/post-punk bands that insist on sticking to suits. Maybe there was something with dark hued clothing against a white backdrop.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

A bed, a chair, and a window. Home is where we rest and where we dream even without mattresses and pillows. It is where our thoughts dwell, where days are measured by shadows, movement by rooms, and resolve by pauses between supper. Home is where the night dwindles, shaking the thick smell of dusk that glistens in our vision. There is no frame for our gaze towards tomorrow; home is wherever hope is nailed to our heart’s rafters.

"Remains of the Day" editorial from GQ Style 7: The Great British Male, Fall/Winter 2008. Photographed by Nathaniel Goldberg, styled by David Bradshaw.

Silk pajamas, Prada

Home. There must be more to it than the yearning for a place or a moment that could seal us off from the hectic demands of life, where we can shut out problems and curl into a long-sought sense of quiet. There must be more to it than the appeal of bearable routine and the safety of predictability. What is it about the concept of home that drives us on journeys just to find it? What makes it the sum of all our goals if not their reason?

Silk pajama top from a selection, Lanvin

At first mention, we think of home as a tin full of tokens we have brought back from our travels. A collection of little things like randomly pocketed pebbles, together with furniture and art, novelties and design pieces. It is a wall where we pin maps of past voyages and plot succeeding conquests, a den stashed with memories to be relived and shared.

Striped cotton pajamas, Ermenegildo Zegna

Home is waking up to smooth out rumpled sheets, clear our minds with coffee or tea, and listen to the first rustlings of the morning. Home is rising beside your loved one. In the evening, it is that glance around your neighborhood right before you turn your back, bolt the gate, and retreat into private living.

Silk pajamas from a selection, Giorgio Armani

Home is the entire length of an afternoon; to it we surrender the loose ends of our days. It is every part of a house and its surroundings as well as any place that our laughter and sighs inhabit. No matter how long and involving our adventures have been, there’s no place quite like it...

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Suit and shirt by CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION. Tie by MISSONI. Shoes by CHURCH'S.

Camel hair clothing or camel-colored apparel comprise two editorials, respectively, from the August 2008 issue of Details and the Fall/Winter release of Fantastic Man. Notice the difference not only in the styling and photography, but also in the language of the text.

Jacket by TOMMY HILFIGER. Scarf by APC.

Clothing by POLO RALPH LAUREN. Belt by YVES SAINT LAUREN.

Clothing by BOSS SELECTION. Shoes by CHURCH'S.

MISSONI.

ISAAC MIZRAHI.

GIORGIO ARMANI.

Clothing by VALENTINO. Shoes by CHURCH'S.

Styling by Paul Stura, hair by Johnnie Sapong using Aveda Men, makeup by Charlotte Day for See Management.

From Fantastic Man. CAMEL GALORE: The multi-layered allure of a neck-to-toe camel outfit, edited by Jodie Barnes and photographed by Paul Wetherell.

Who knew there were this many shades of camel? There is so much green in the TOM FORD cashmere camel double-breasted coat to almost slip it off the camel chart. Here, it's worn on top of a brown-ish GIORGIO ARMANI herringbone suit jacket, a more oatmeal POLO RALPH LAUREN camel cashmere poloneck and a reddish camel silk scarf by LANVIN, which is tied here as a cravat. Meanwhile the gold in these POLO RALPH LAUREN camel trousers really shines through.

Wow, look at the orange of those JUNYA WATANABE camel cords! They are part of a look that is more modern man than (its) neighbor (on top). The CALVIN KLEIN COLLECTION wool coat is treated with plastic and has a narrower lapel, while the classic camel suit-jacket by LANVIN is of a short length. Underneath, the caramel coloured poloneck is by BOSS BLACK, while the gold CARTIER watch is as close to camel as you can get in a timepiece.

Details only succeeds in one outfit: the one with Polo Ralph Lauren denim. In an effort to tone down the camel hair, the other combinations have only become slack and boring. Fantastic Man conquers the fabric with panache.

This is also what I mean when I said that Fantastic Man is more personal. Though the approach is conceptual - hence the color scheme - it welcomes the reader, while the images from Details appear more like shopfront installations that have the potential to assault passersby.

The absence of the model's personality allows room for the reader to project himself into the clothes, and the accompanying text offers usable information, and yes, even insight.

Monday, November 10, 2008

There are the usual and now common collaborations between visual artists, fashion designers, architects, and interior and industrial designers, lasting only one or several seasons. Usually the convergence is pure business: to expand the visual language of a brand or to search for new synergies between disciplines to push their limits. The conversation that takes place is often times terse, limited, and in terms of relationships, fixed.

Then there are the rare marriages of heart, mind, and creative sensibility. These blessed occurrences happen less between corporations than between talented individuals, and in the case of artist Ruben Toledo and fashion designer Isabel Toledo, between actual spouses.

Their creative fusion has spanned two decades and covers fashion design, painting, illustration, and even sculpture.

Ruben has designed perfume bottles, mannequins, award statuettes, store windows, scarves, fabrics, dishes, and carpets. He has painted portraits, murals, and album covers...

(Ruben Toledo) is married to fashion not only because he illustrates for brands and magazines, but also because his dreams inspire the clothes of his designer wife, Isabel, who in turn inspires him as his muse. The Toledos are each other’s creative sustenance and are together an artistic force...

Incidentally, Isabel also designs her husband's clothes, lending the minute idiosyncracies she is known for.